About the High School Huddle

Welcome to the Citizen-Times' constantly-updated blog for Western North Carolina high school sports. Features include breaking news, scores and stats, college recruiting updates and live blogs from some of the marquee games in WNC. Readers are encouraged to comment on posts, but personal attacks on current athletes, coaches and their families will not be tolerated and are subject to edit or removal at the moderator's discretion.

“One of the things you see with this rivalry is that every kid gets the most out of their match, whether it’s one of our high-level guys or our average guys.”

The MAC officially recognizes a 3-A and 4-A champion in every sport. But try telling that to a large crowd that cheered enthusiastically throughout Wednesday’s two-hour match between the 3-A Jets and 4-A Rams inside Baldwin Gym.

Enka had previously beaten Roberson, 46-16, on Jan. 5 in Candler. But since that match was part of a tournament, it did not count towards either team’s conference record.

So Wednesday was the first chance to truly make amends for last year when Roberson was the unofficial outright MAC champion.

“(Wednesday) was a pretty high-caliber match,” Barker said.

“We knew (Roberson) was coming after us and I thought we did a good job bracing for that impact. We had some really good matches and some not so good matches. But that happens when you’re wrestling kids of their caliber.”

Feb 3rd & 10th .. Lady Xplosion Basketball Club holding tryouts for young ladies in 7-12th grade for travel basketball based out of Asheville, NC . Team(s) will be playing YBOA and AYBA sanctioned events . 7-8th grade will be held Feb 3 & 10th . High school age groups held after completions of season. For more information about tryouts and costs associated please contact Liz @ 828-284-6976 or Beth @ 828-734-4357.

Asheville native Mike Fox coaches the University of North Carolina baseball team which is ranked No. 1 in the country in a preseason poll from the website, Perfect Game.

One of Fox’s seniors is Tuscola alum Cody Stubbs, who plays first base and outfield for the Tar Heels.

Stubbs hit .258 with 35 RBIs, 19 doubles and five home runs a year ago.

More from UNC:

The North Carolina baseball squad will open the 2013 season as the No. 1 team in the country according to Perfect Game’s Preseason Poll released Tuesday.

The Tar Heels return 22 letterwinners from a year ago, including preseason All-Americas 3B Colin Moran and SP Kent Emanuel.

Carolina welcomes back its entire starting rotation from a year ago with Emanuel leading the way after an 8-4 campaign in 2012. Sophomore right-hander Benton Moss and junior left-hander Hobbs Johnson return as well as the Rocky Mount, N.C. duo posted ERAs of 1.94 and 1.56, respectively.

The Tar Heels were one of four ACC teams in the initial poll and were followed by NC State (9), Georgia Tech (12) and Florida State (17). Clemson, Miami and Virginia were among the ten to watch.

The 2013 season gets underway on Friday, Feb. 15 when Seton Hall visits Boshamer Stadium for a three-game set beginning at 3 p.m.

At the running back spot, one of the top candidates is Sam Gash, who had been the Lions running backs coach the last five years. Gash, a 12-year veteran running back and fullback, has been coaching in the NFL since 2005, when he started off as an assistant running backs coach with the Jets. The Cowboys are looking to replace Skip Peete, the RB coach since 2007 in Dallas who was let go and since landed the same gig in Chicago.

Former Enka wrestling standout Daniel Ownbey has now won 29 straight matches for UNC Pembroke and remains the country’s top-ranked Division II wrestler at 141 pounds.

More from UNCP:

EDMOND, Okla. – All-Americans Daniel Ownbey and Mike Williams each continued their perch atop their respective weight rankings, while UNCP’s unexplainable drop in the team rankings finally reversed itself, with the release of the Division II Wrestling Coaches Association poll on Thursday.

Despite registering a 1-3 clip since the last edition of the poll, the Braves re-entered the listing and are tied with Ouachita Baptist in the No. 20 spot in Thursday’s poll. St. Cloud State, who ousted the Braves in the first round of the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals en route to the event championship, jumped three spots to No. 1 in the listing.

Ownbey, who extended his personal win streak out to 29 matches with a perfect 3-0 showing in Springfield, Ill., stayed No. 1 in the 141-pound ranking for the third-straight poll. Williams, who chalked up his 99th career victory against Minnesota State-Mankato on Saturday, remained No. 1 at 174 pound for the fourth-straight poll.

UNCP will return to action again, Jan. 25-26, when it makes the trek to Newberry, S.C., for the Super Region I Duals inside Eleazer Arena. The Braves will open up their slate at the duals with a rematch against No. 21 Kutztown on January 25 at 5 p.m.

It marks the first MAC loss for the Titans (10-7, 5-1) since the 2010-11 season.

Erwin (10-8, 3-3) trailed by two points entering the fourth quarter, but then proceeded to outscore McDowell, 21-14, over the course of the final eight minutes. Markia Stacey led McDowell with 18 points, while Nicole Mills was close behind with 16.

McDowell’s boys remained unbeaten in the MAC with an 81-66 win in the nightcap.

Enka also beat Roberson, 46-16, on Jan. 5 but that match did not count towards either team’s conference record since it was part of a tournament. The MAC officially recognizes a 3-A and 4-A champion in every sport and the Jets (3-A) and the Rams (4-A) are the defending MAC champions.